Following the failure of Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. was in desperate need of a new take on the Dark Knight to get to the big screen. There was still money there, they just had to make sure not to piss of fans with something like their most recent effort. In order to get something out as quickly as possible, a rather ironic decision given neither project saw the light of day, WB began developing multiple takes on Batman for the big screen. The first was Darren Arronofsky’s Batman: Year One (which we wrote about in the previous article) and the other was a live-action adaptation of the popular cartoon series Batman Beyond.

Set many years in the future, Batman Beyond saw Bruce Wayne as a retired old man who brought teenager Terry McGinnis on to take over the mantle of the Bat. Series creators Paul Dini and Alan Burnett were brought on to write a script for the film with Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans) set to direct.

“It was set in Gotham future but it didn’t quite have the fantastic futurist edge,” Dini later said about the film on the Fatman on Batman podcast. “It was sort like an amalgam, it had a little of ‘Dark Knight,’ a little bit of contemporary comics and Terry in the suit.”

The pair reportedly turned in a draft of the script and from there, nothing. Batman Beyond, along with the other developing Batman projects, stayed in limbo before ultimately disappearing entirely.

Though the Sorcerer Supreme is on his way from Marvel Studios, it wouldn’t be the first attempt at adapting the character. Find out more on page 8!